Consequences
by texaswookie
Summary: One could argue that Felicity telling Ray how to hack the Queen Consolidated Mainframe has some serious legal ramifications. Here's how that could have been played up. Probably not for people who think Felicity can do no wrong.


The idea for this fic came to me a few months ago after a review I gave that was anti Felicity.

I tried my best to keep the feel neutral even if Felicity doesn't come out of this in very good shape. CW & DC have all the rights to Arrowverse characters used.

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Felicity Smoak smiled as she walked into the office that was hers. No longer was she in the cubby downstairs With several others or even in a corner of Oliver's office. This office was her entire place spoke of power. Power that was now hers. What had once been Queen Consolidated, was now Palmer Tech. Now in the new order of things she was no longer the overqualified IT girl, nor was she personal assistant for the CEO that most people thought that she was sleeping with. Not that would have objected, it just wasn't something that was happening. At least not yet. She told herself. Now she was the one making the decisions and not deciding what type of coffee to get or whether to get milk or cream. It had been insulting for everything that she had done to take the job that Oliver had strong armed her into. She wanted to earn everything that she got, and here she was now having earned the spot as Vice President because of her own skills. Ray Palmer might be a bit arrogant, but he recognized her as more than just someone that was good with computers. That was another thing. Oliver might be good at knowing how to hurt people in ways that she was sure were outlawed by the Geneva convention and just being a decent person. Ray on the other hand possessed an intellect that actually challenged her. They made a good team, and she could already imagine all of the good that they would be doing with this company.

She smiled one more time before she walked over to the desk and the top of the line computer that was just waiting for her to boot up.

"Felicity Smoak?" A voice asked from behind her.

The woman gasped and looked up to see a couple of older men that looked vaguely familiar. The both of them had very serious faces as well. One was in a suit that looked like something that Ray or Oliver wore, while the other was wearing something that was off the rack. "Uh, can I help you. Do we have a meeting? I'm sorry, I just started today and I didn't know anything about any meeting yet. I thought that they'd at least let me look at the schedule." She babbled, as she tried to figure out where it was that she knew the men from. Her eyes darted back and forth hoping that they were wearing name tags that could help her identify them.

The man in the fancy outfit frowned at her. "Mr. Dennis. We met several times before, when you were the Executive Assistant for Mr. Queen." The man reminded her coolly.

"Right." Felicity returned, unsure as she tried to remember what his position was. Oliver had always been good at remembering the names of all of these people.

"I am a senior member of the Board of Directors. The man snapped at her impatiently.

"Oh."

"And this is someone else you should be familiar with." Mr. Dennis told her. "Detective Pike."

"Oh right you used to be Detective Lance's partner." Felicity noted cheerfully, glad that she'd been able to identify one of the people in her office. This was so much easier when she had a tablet prepared with information on the people coming into the office.

"Yes, well Ms Smoak I have to ask you a rather serious question." Pike said, as he looked at Felicity.

"Of course detective, anything that I can do to help." The blonde returned to him confidently. "I'm always up for helping in whatever way I can." Felicity assured him, as she flashed him her widest grin. She really hoped that this was nothing to do with Oliver, the Hood/Arrow, or even the secret floor that had been converted into a lair. It had taken a lot of work making the computers forget that was there.

"Thank you." Pike returned. "Miss Smoak, did you, or did you not tell Dr. Palmer how to hack into the mainframe of this Cooperation when it was under different ownership. Allowing Dr. Palmer to access all of the confidential files that the then Queen Consolidated owned?"

Felicity's confident smile fell from her face at that line of questioning, her hacker instincts telling her that she should be wary. Then again, she had faced off with Merlyn and Slade, there was no way a simple detective should make her worry. Besides, no matter what happened she was sure Ray would manage to get her out of trouble and if he couldn't or wouldn't do anything then there was always Oliver and Diggle who would get her out of any mess that she might find herself in. It was the nice part of having vigilante friends.

"Yeah I might have kind of accidentally told him some of the weaknesses in Queen security." She admitted.

"I see." Pike returned, as he wrote something down in a notebook. "Miss Smoak, before you became unemployed with Queen Consolidated you worked as the personal assistant to Oliver Queen correct?"

"Yes."

"And before that you worked as a member of the cyber security team in Queen Consolidated? Working closely with Walter Steele on some internal security issues."

"Yes." Felicity answered hesitantly, wondering where this was going. She knew she shouldn't have told Ray what she had, but the questioning was confusing her. She really wasn't a very good liar anyways.

"Did you at any point bring up this cyber weakness with the Queen Consolidated mainframe that you told Mr. Palmer how to then exploit?

"Well it's less of a Queen Consolidated, and more of a Starling City problem in general." She supplied to them helpfully. "It's just the way that things are set up around here."

"And did you inform your supervisor about this weakness that could be exploited?" Pike asked, as he saw her trying to dismiss the seriousness of what she had done.

"Well no." Felicity finally admitted. "Mainly because it's something that everyone knows about, and we just have to plan for it."

"And yet thanks to your assistance in getting around the various obstacles that had been put up to prevent this sort of computer intrusion. And because you told Dr. Palmer about all of this, he was impressed enough with your skills and knowledge that he was willing to hire you?" Pike questioned looking somewhat surprised that the woman didn't seem to understand just what it was that she had done wrong. He shook his head, Quentin was going to be a pain when he heard about what he had been forced to do. The man had taken to the young woman. Thought of her like a favorite niece. It was also why he had been assigned the case.

"Exactly." Felicity returned to the man. "In fact you, can even ask him about how long I held out against taking this job. It felt like a betrayal of Oliver of sorts when I finally did."

"Yes, I can see how that might happen." Mr. Dennis remarked dryly.

"Please don't interrupt." Pike requested of the Senior Board Member. "I also fully intend to ask Dr. Palmer about his hiring methods."

Pike had to admit the woman knew how to network. She had somehow enticed Walter Steele, Oliver Queen, Quentin Lance, and now Ray Palmer. The only person that had not been caught up by the blonde computer expert had been Moira Queen. Those were just the names that he knew of. He wondered what her secret was that allowed her to to so easily move up through the ranks of Starling City Elite. Sure Quentin didn't count as the elite, but he was still a good man to have in your corner. When Quentin Lance talked people listened. Particularly now that the man had stopped drinking.

Pike sighed as he flipped his notebook closed, he really didn't want to do this not against someone who had so many powerful friends. Still he had enough from her statement to at least take her down for questioning. That with some of the other evidence meant that he had her. "Felicity Smoak, you are under arrest for suspicion of Cooperate Espionage." He told her.

"What?" Felicity squeaked out in surprise as she saw the man rich the cuffs off of his belt. This couldn't be happening, not to her, not after she had finally gotten to this position. To then have it all snatched away was beyond cruel. She turned to look at Mr. Dennis as her arms were being brought behind her back. "Why are you doing this?" She demanded of him.

"Oliver Queen and I have our differences." Mr. Dennis admitted. "Personally, I think that he has got impressive instincts when it comes to business. However, he lacks the dedication to focus on the business. He was right when he first came home that he wasn't ready for the world of business and insisted that Walter Steele remain CEO. The only reason that he did take over was because he didn't have a choice. He did his best to save the company. For that reason I'm doing this. I'm doing this because while this may have started out as a family business, it is a business. In a few years I imagine Oliver Queen will have adjusted to the regular world and learned enough that we might even welcome him in some sort of management position. Who knows in time he may even take this company back from Mr. Palmer. I also respected Robert and Moria, and think that the people who destroyed their legacy should face the consequences. I understand that the current rulings are up to 15 years in prison and a maximum of $500,000 fine for your crimes. Considering Moira Queen was on her way towards becoming Mayor and Oliver Queen has managed to gather a decent amount of goodwill in the city, the people might not be to pleased with you. Whatever happens, you're done in Starling City Ms. Smoak. You should have stayed in your other job selling circuit boards."

Felicity just stared at him in stunned disbelief, she was silent as she was led away as she tried to contemplate what had just happened. She hadn't meant to do anything wrong, she had just sensed a fellow hacker and had been helping him. She hadn't even got to tell Ray any of her ideas. She was going to change the world.


End file.
